Life-guard.



A.J. BERG.

LIFE GUARD.

0N FILED JUNE APPLICA 19I2- 1,199,728. PatentedSept. 26,1916.

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A. J. BERG.

LIFE GUARD.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 1. 1912.

- Patented Sept. 26,1916.

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m: Nonms Pzrsns c AUGUST J. BERG, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

LIFE-GUARD.

Specification of Letters Patent. patgnted Sept 25 191$ Application filed June 1, 1912. Serial No. 701,453.

T 0 all whom it may concern Be it known that I, AUGUST J. BERG, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a .new and useful Life-Guard, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to life guards applied to the front end of street cars, and the objects of my improvements are first, to make a new and novel knuckle joint; secend, to make the tripping apron removable; third, to provide a chain for resetting the tripping device; fourth, to construct a novel tripping apron; fifth, to make a novelly constructed guard; sixth, to make a simple and cheap adjusting device between the guard and the knuckle joint and other features which will become apparent from the description to follow.

This device consists of a guard pivotally mounted on suitable depending brackets under the car and a tripping apron at the exreme front end of the car, which are so arranged and connected that the guard will be automatically dropped to the pavement when the apron contacts with an obstruction in the path of the car. In devices of this character it is desirable to have the cooperating parts permanently fixed with relation to one another after they have once been properly adjusted, to have the parts which are most liable to become broken made removable, to have the tripping apron so constructed that it will not be effective unless contacting with a solid obstruction; and to have the several parts constructed so that they are cheap to manufacture, and my device embodies all these desirable features.

To describe my invention so that others versed in the art to which it pertains can make and use the same I have illustrated it on the accompanying two sheets of drawings forming a part of this specification, in which Figure l is a perspective view of a life guard embodying my invention detached from the car; Fig. 2, is a longitudinal sectional view of the same shown attached to a car; Fig. 3, is an enlarged detail sectional view of a part of the guard; Fig. 4, is an enlarged detail sectional view of the knuckle joint and associated parts; Fig. 5, is a plan view of the knuckle joint, and Fig. 6,

is an elevation of a chain wheel forming part of my invention showing its construc- 1on. V

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

Near either side of the car and some distance back from the front end of the car is a depending brace or hanger 7 and pivotally mounted between these two braces 7 is the guard 8, built up of a suitable frame, bottom slats 9, and the three pipes 10 which latter form an upright back on the guard. The frame of the guard comprises the U-shaped pipe 11 and the two cast angle pieces or brackets 12 having the horizontal tubular portions 13 into which lit the straight extremities of the pipe 11. Suitable metal straps 14 connect all of the slats 9, the middle part of the pipe 11 and the lowermost pipe 10 together, and a central brace 15 connects the. pipes 10 at about midway their length to give said pipes more rigidity. The three pipes 10 have their extremities rigidly secured in the cast angle pieces 12, and suitable bolts 16 are passed through the angles l2 and the depending braces 7 thus pivotally connecting the guard 8 to said braces.

By observing Fig. 2, it will be noted that the front part of the guard 8 is substantially horizontal while the back part is substantially vertical, and if the front end moves down the top of the back part moves forward, and visa versa. To normally .hold the front end of the guard 8 up olf the pavement the top of theback part is held up as viewed in Fig. 2, by one or more spanner rods 17 (two are shown in the drawings) having their rear ends pivotally connected to the upper ends of suitable arms 18 connected to the pipes 10 and their front ends pivotally connected to the rearwardly extending arms 19 of the knuckle joints 20 which are rigidly mounted on the rock shaft 21, mounted at its ends in the depending hangers 22 secured to the underside of the car.

The spanner rods 17 are preferably made adjustable in length so that the front end of the guard 8 can be set higher or lower as desired. As clearly shown in Fig. 4:, the

spanner rod 17 is tubular and has loosely fitting into its front end the rod 23 which is pivotally connected to the arms 19 of the knuckle joint 20 and is also provided with the over-hanging extension 2a which normally rests on top of the knuckle joint 20 and serves as a stop to the rotation of the rock shaft 21 in its extreme position in a non-clockwise direction as viewed in Fig. 4. Two nuts 25 are threaded on the rod 23 and one bears against the end of the tubular spanner rod 17. Of course it will be seen that as the nuts 25 are shifted to the right on the rod 23 as viewed in Fig. 4, the distance between the pivotally connected ends of the spanner rod will be correspondingly decreased, and as the nuts 25 are shifted to the left on red 23 as viewed in Fig. l, the distance between the pivotally connected ends of the spanner rod will be correspondingly increased.

The rock shaft 21 with the arms 19 is of course free to rotate clockwise from the position shown in full lines in Fig. -l, to the po sition indicated by the dotted lines in the same view, and necessarily the arms 19 on the knuckle joints 20 will move in an arc clockwise and carry the front ends of the spanner rods 17 to the right as viewed in Fig. 1, thus permitting the front end of the guard 8 to drop to the pavement. The front end of the guard 8 will remain in its lowered position until it is restored to its raised normal position by the rock shaft 21 being rotated non-clockwise until it comes to rest in the position indicated by the full lines in Fig. 4-, in which position it will remain' because the pivots 26 connecting the front ends of the spanner rods 17 are slightly below a straight line drawn through the axis of the rock shaft 21 and the axis of the pivots connecting the rear ends of the spanner rods 17 and the arms 18. However, it will be noted that soon as the rock shaft 21 is rotated clockwise a suificient distance to bring the pivots 26 above such straight line the front end of the guard 8 will fall by force of gravity.

The rock shaft 21 is conveniently made of an outer pipe 27 and an inner rod 28 which fits snugly in the pipe 27. A tripping apron 29 is pivotally connected to the rock shaft 21 so as to hang below the same by gravity. T preferably make the apron detachable from the rock shaft by providing it with two or more hooks 30 which are simply hooked over the rock shaft 21. Two of these hooks 30 are spaced to be adjacent to the knuckle joints 20, which are provided with suitable lugs 31 extending in the path of the hooks 30 and practically resting againt said hooks when the apron 29 is hanging in a perpendicular position. Thus it will be seen that, if the lower ends of the apron 29 is moved backward or to the left as seen in Fig. 1, the hooks 30 will engage the lugs 31 and rotate the knuckle joints 2O clockwise and drop the front end of the guard 8. Toenable the placing of the apron 29 higher or lower, the hooks 30 are provided with a plurality of bolt holes arranged in a vertical row and plates 32 are fastened to the apron 29 also provided with a plurality of bolt holes arra. god in a vertical row, to cotiperate with the holes in the hooks 30; two or more bolts are secured in each of the hooks to fasten them to the apron.

The apron 29 is, made of two parallel strips 33, preferably wood, which are con nected near their ends with the cross pieces 3%. The two diagonalbra es 35 connect the two strips 33 and serve to hold the apron rigid. An upright metal strip 36 is secured to the apron preferably near its center and has its upper end extending above the rock shaft 21. A spring 37 is connected between the top end of the strip 38 and a part of the car to yieldably hold the apron 29 at substantially right angles to the floor of the car, especially when the car is going up an incline; for if the apron were permitted to swing by gravity into a perpendicular position when the car is headed up an incline, the apron by means of the hooks 30 would turn the knuckle joints 20 and drop the front end of guard 8. This spring 37 also enables setting the apron to a more sensitive position and yet not have a strong wind trip the guard.

To restore the guard 8 and the rock shaft 21 to their normal position, as shown by full lines in Fig. 4-, the chain 38, which passes up through the pipe 39 secured in the floor of the car, is pulled up by grasping the ring 91-0 with the hand. The lower end ofthe chain 38, as clearly shown, passes partly around a grooved pulley 41, which is rigidly mounted on the rock shaft 21, and has its end link securely fastened to said pulley 41. The relative positions and arrangements of the rock shaft 21, pulley 11 and chain 38 are such that the rock shaft 21 will be rotated non-clockwise as viewed in Fig. d, when the chain is pulled upward. The pipe 39 is preferably provided with the union 4.2 which conveniently serves as a stop and support for the pipe 39 when the latter is forced down through a hole in the car platform. The hand ring 10 which is connected to the upper end link of the chain 38 is made conveniently large so as to rest outside the pipe 39 and be easily grasped with the hand.

The pulley ll as clearly shown in Fig. 6, is preferably made of two companion parts which, when held together by the bolts 41 form the complete pulley. T he annular flanges of the pulley d1 are formed with offsets as at one point for the purpose of retaining the lower end link of chain 38 in the center of the pulley. The bolt 45 passing through the otfsets 141- also passes through the lower end link of chain 38 and serves to connect the chain to the pulley. I provide two set screws 46 in the hub of the pulley il to rigidly fasten the same to the rock shaft 21. I

To assist the front end of the guard 8 in its downward movement I provide the springs e7 which are connected between the upper pipe 10 and the floor of the car.

The hangers 22 in which the ends of the rock shaft 21 are journaled, are provided with a plurality of holes for said shaft arranged at different levels so that the shaft 21 may be placed in a higher or lower position as desired.

In operation the device is attached to the front end of the car and is set in its normal position, with the front end of the guard S raised as shown by full lines in Fig. 4; when an object, as for instance a person is struck by the moving car, the body will first contact with and swing the apron 29 backward, 6., to the left as viewed in Fig. 4, and thus drop the front end of the guard 8, then the body will be picked up by and car ied on the guard 8; thus the body of a person is prevented from being run over by the wheels of the car and the life is saved.

Having thus fully described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. In a device of the class described, a guard comprising a horizontal portion provided with a rigid rear upright portion, a U-shaped rod forming the front edge of and a portion of the sides of the horizontal portion, two L-shaped brackets forming the sides of the rear upright portion each having a horizontal tubular part into which the ends of said U shaped rod freely fit; a rear rod rigidly connecting said two L-shaped brackets and suitable strips connecting said rear rod and the front edge rod of the horizontal portion to retain the ends of the U shaped rod in the horizontal part of the L shaped brackets.

2. In a device of the class described, a guard comprising ahorizontal portion and a rear upright portion, suitable depending brackets secured to the floor of the car to which the guard is pivotally connected to have the front end of its horizontal portion free to swing up and down and the upper end of the upright portion free to swing back and forward, a rock shaft mounted in suitable brackets forward of said guard, a knuckle joint mounted to rotate with said shaft, an apron provided at its upper end with hooks to hook over said rock shaft and leave the apron free to swing about the shaft, a lug integral with the knuckle joint extending in the path of one of said hooks, a spanner rod between the rock shaft and the upright portion of the guard having its rear end pivotally connected to the upper end of an arm secured to the upright portion of the guard, a suitable arm integral with the knuckle joint to which the front end of a rod connectedto the spanner rod is pivotally connected and means for resetting the rock shaft to its normal position.

8. In a device of the class described, a guard pivotally mounted under the floor of a car to have its front end free to move up and down, a rockshaft mounted forward of the guard provided with a tripping apron and a knuckle joint, a spanner rod connecting the guard and the knuckle joint whereby the position of the guard is controlled by the action of the rock shaft, and means for resetting the rock shaft to its normal position comprising a pulley wheel secured to rotate with the rock shaft, a chain secured to the said pulley wheel and a vertically disposed tube through which the chain passes and is guided.

4. In a device of the class described a suitable guard pivotally mounted under the car body to have its forward end free to swing up and down, a rock shaft, a spanner rod connected between the guard and said rock shaft to control the position of the guard, a tripping apron depending from the rock shaft and arranged to trip the rock shaft, a suitable knuckle joint mounted on the rock shaft to rotate therewith, an arm integral with the knuckle joint to which said spanner rod is connected and a lug integral with said knuckle joint arranged to be engaged by a part of the tripping apron, so that the relative radial positions of said arm and lug remain the same.

5. In a device of the class described, a tiltable guard, a tripping device comprising a rock shaft provided with a knuckle joint, a spanner rod connected between the guard and the knuckle joint of said tripping device to control the position of the guard, a tripnin a aron de )GDClIIl from the tri 3 in deb c a:

v1ce so arranged that a slight movement of the apron in one direction will trip the device and drop the guard and a spring connected to the apron to normally hold the apron in a position to not trip the device.

6. In a device of the class described, a

suitable tilting guard, a tripping device, a

a spanner rod connected between the guard and the trlppmg device to control the position of the guard and a tripping apron debolts fitted in the registering perforations,

whereby the vertical positionof the apron can be varied.

7; In a device of the class described, a

In testimony whereof I have signed my 10 name to this speclfication 1n presence of two subserlblng wltnesses this 28th day of Febrnary 1912, at Chicago, llllnols.

AUGUST J. BERG.

tiltable guard, a tripping device for the guard, a spanner red connecting said guard with the tripping device having its end adjacent the tripping device hollow, a rod loosely fitted into the hollow end of the spanner red provided with screw threads, a nut fitted on said threaded red resting against the end of the hollow spanner rod and means for locking the nut in position.

'Witnesses:

P. J. JACKER, SAMUEL A. LANDES.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

' Washington, D. C. 

